This invention relates to the manufacture of heat bonded articles and, more particularly, to the manufacture of plastic articles from a plurality of components.
One type of plastic article, manufactured from a plurality of members adhesively bonded, is a sound suppression panel of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,152 -- Adamson et al, issued Nov. 24, 1970. Such a panel, which can be configured in relatively complex contours, includes a core and at least one face sheet adhesively bonded to the core.
In the manufacture of such an article, it has been common practice to assemble the various components of the article with adhesive bonding material at surfaces to be joined. Then the assembly is placed in a substantially nonporous collapsible enclosure, such as a plastic bag, from which the air is substantially evacuated, thus pressing the bag against the components of the article to hold them in place. In order to obtain an adequate seal, openings in the bag, for example the one through which the assembly is introduced, is sealed with a putty material before evacuation. The assembly, thus pressed together, is placed in an autoclave facility in which heat is applied to adhesively bond the assembly into the article through the adhesive bonding material.
This method is time consuming and has resulted in inadequately bonded articles because of a loss of vacuum in the bag during the autoclave curing cycle.